BFG Collective Announces Six Month Residency at The Secret Theatre

Three of New York City's top indie theatre companies, Boomerang Theatre Company, Flux Theatre Ensemble, and Gideon Productions, have joined forces to form the BFG Collective, which will hold a six-month-long residency at Long Island City's The Secret Theatre. Productions will include Mac Rogers' sci-fi epic The Honeycomb Trilogy, Boomerang Theatre Company's revival of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and the New York premiere of Melissa Gawlowski's Spring Tides, and Flux Theatre Ensemble's world premiere of August Schulenburg's new play, Deinde.

Advance Man
Part 1 of The Honeycomb Trilogy
January 12-January 29
Written by Mac Rogers
Directed by JorDana Williams
Presented by Gideon Productions
Advance Man centers on the family of Bill Cooke, the leader of a group of astronauts who have returned from the first manned mission to Mars bearing secrets and illicit cargo that could forever alter not only their lives, but all of humanity.

Much Ado About Nothing
March 1-18
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Daniel Talbott
Boomerang's critically acclaimed summertime hit returns with more barbed wit and romantic shenanigans! When returning soldiers come home from war, the real battles begin! Beatrice loves and hates Benedick at the same time, returning his amour with each stinging put down and quip. Benedick loves the game when he's winning, and despises Beatrice when he's not. Using a trunk of costumes and more flowers than you can count, hearts will be won, lost and won again all for the glory of true love...and who can get the last word in.

The Real Thing
March 3-24
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Cailin Heffernan
Presented by Boomerang Theatre Company
Tom Stoppard's award-winning romantic dramedy receives an intimate Indie Theatre revival. Come for the blazing Stoppard wit...and see the show as you have never seen it before.

Spring Tides
March 9-25
Written by Melissa Gawlowski
Directed by Jeff Woodbridge
Presented by Boomerang Theatre Company
Jane, newly pregnant, escapes onto a beach through a closet door and finds a strangely familiar world under attack. As she, a greaser, and a Spanish nun battle monsters and brandish swords and stones, the line between real and imaginary blurs, and to save them all, Jane will have to make the decision of her life.

Blast Radius
Part 2 of The Honeycomb Trilogy
March 29-April 15
Written by Mac Rogers
Directed by JorDana Williams
Presented by Gideon Productions
BLAST RADIUS follows a sister and brother at mortal odds in an Earth radically changed by years of alien occupation. The human insurgency finally has a weapon to turn the tide - at a terrible cost. The conquering alien race has found a chilling solution to end human resistance for good.

Deinde
April 28-May 12
Written by August Schulenburg
Directed by Heather Cohn
Presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble
In the not-too-distant future, the pressure to cure a global pandemic spurs the creation of DEINDE, a device that allows a team of quantum biologists to think directly into a powerful computer. At first, they use this prosthetic for the mind under strict rules of engagement, but soon noble ideals and personal passions lead a few to break the rules. They discover that DEINDE's power is far greater than anyone first imagined, and their world spins out of control, raising questions of morality, consciousness, and what it means to be human in an age of rapid technological change.

Sovereign
Part 3 of The Honeycomb Trilogy
June 14-July 1
Written by Mac Rogers
Directed by JorDana Williams
Presented by Gideon Productions
In SOVEREIGN, the human race is slowly rebuilding. Ronnie, now a battle-scarred Governor, must decide the fate of the greatest war criminal still living: her brother Abbie. Abbie's last desperate measure on behalf of the aliens forces a confrontation between species that will forever change the future of the human race.

All performances will be at The Secret Theatre (44 02 23rd Street, Long Island City) in Queens. Tickets range from $15-$25 and may be purchased online at www.bfgcollective.com.

BOOMERANG THEATRE COMPANY is an award-winning indie theatre company based in New York City. Boomerang annually produces a season composed of three programs: free outdoor Shakespeare productions in parks throughout NYC; an indoor repertory series of new, classic and neglected plays; and the FIRST FLIGHT New Play Festival of workshops and readings. In the past twelve years, the Boomerang Theatre Company has produced 47 full productions, including eight world premieres, seven New York City premieres and reinvented producing in repertory for small theatres. In 2008, the company was the recipient of the Caffé Cino Fellowship from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards for consistent production of outstanding work. Boomerang has been awarded two New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Burning the Old Man by Kelly McAllister (out of six nominations), a 2002 OOBR Award for The Misanthrope by Moliere, and was selected as a September 2005 recipient of The STAR Initiative from WNYC radio. The company also presented the United States premiere of Irvine ("Trainspotting") Welsh's You'll Have Had Your Hole in the NYC International Fringe Festival. Three plays produced by Boomerang have been published in nytheatre.com's annual Plays and Playwrights anthologies. www.boomerangtheatre.org
FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE produces transformative theatre that explores and awakens the capacity for change. As an ensemble-artist driven company, Flux believes that long-term collaboration and rigorous creative development can unite artists and audiences to build a creative home in New York. Flux is the proud recipient of two NYC Fringe Festival Awards: in 2007 the Village Voice Audience Favorite Award for August Schulenburg's Riding the Bull and in 2008 for Heather Cohn's "Outstanding Direction" of Other Bodies. In 2008 nytheatre.com chose Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their "People of the Year" saying "This rising theatre company had a hit in the New York International Fringe Festival with Other Bodies, written by Artistic Director August Schulenburg, and then went on to mount the fall's most ambitious indie show, Johnna Adams's Angel Eaters Trilogy." Flux received a Citation for Excellence in Off-Off Broadway Theatre from the Independent Theater Bloggers Association and seven New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations for The Angel Eaters Trilogy including a win for Outstanding Sound Design. In 2010, director Heather Cohn was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for The Lesser Seductions of History and Flux's 2011 production of Liz Duffy Adams' Dog Act received two nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role (Becky Byers) and Outstanding Set Design (Jason Paradine). The New York Innovative Theatre Awards also awarded the prestigious 2011 Caffé Cino Fellowship Award to Flux for consistently producing outstanding work. www.fluxtheatre.org

Gideon Productions crafts lively, engaging plays that explore what's strange about being human and what's human about being strange, using familiar genres and cultural touchstones as a springboard to something wholly unexpected. Gideon primarily produces work by playwright Mac Rogers, including Viral (Outstanding Production of a Play, FringeNYC 2009; 2010 ITBA Outstanding Off-Off Broadway Show; two ITBA citations for Individual Performances), Universal Robots, co-produced with Manhattan Theatre Source (4 2009 NYIT Award Nominations, including Outstanding Playwright and Production of a Play), and Hail Satan (Outstanding Playwright, FringeNYC 2007; Backstage "Performance to Remember"). Gideon has also produced several musicals by Williams/Rogers/Williams, including Fleet Week (Oustanding Musical, FringeNYC 2005), Air Guitar (FringeNYC 2006), and The First Annual St. Ignatius Channukah Pageant (Theatre Row, 2005). Gideon and Mac Rogers spent three years in residence at the Vampire Cowboys' monthly episodic workshop, The Saturday Night Saloon. Gideon's own Blueprint Project presented four playwrights' (Mac Rogers, August Schulenburg, Crystal Skillman, and Catherine Trieschmann) profoundly different takes on the exact same plot. www.gideonth.com